Turkey Empanadas

Architect hosted our Wednesday night dinner and she made Empanadas… I patiently waited all week for these little treasures. We love when Architect makes her cultural favorites because we don’t often make them for ourselves.

Architect made her crust, but frozen empanada shells are sold in most markets, Goya offers a variety or you can use a ring mold or small bowl to cut the shapes out of frozen pie crust. Whatever you use for the shells, it’s the filling in these little gems that charms me every time…I had two.

Ok, two and a half.

But I ran an extra ½ mile the next day to neutralize the consequences.

You can fill an empanada with anything..savory or sweet and more on sweet empanadas in a future post.

Architect’s Empanadas
(Adapted from a recipe from the blog “From Argentina, With Love”)

Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey
1 tablespoon butter
2 medium onions, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Crushed red pepper to taste
6-8 green olives, sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
12 empanada rounds
Water to seal edges

Directions
In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and saute until translucent. Add the turkey, salt and pepper to taste and cook until the turkey has cooked through. Add salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, and crushed red pepper and mix well.

Place a spoonful of the meat mixture on each round but to prevent oozing don’t fill to the edge. Top each meat pile with a slice of egg and a couple of olives (even some raisins or sliced figs would be nice and add texture and a tasty surprise). Slightly wet the edge of the pastry, fold in half and pinch the edges together with your fingers.

Deep fry in canola oil until golden brown.

Serve. Eat. Drool.

Empanadas can also be baked for 10 minutes at 425º. Glaze with a beaten egg and place on parchment paper before baking.

We had a field green salad with almonds and oranges served in the lovely traveling salad bowl and a wonderful bottle of red wine. For dessert, we had the most delicious cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes in Washington, DC (my Firm has an office there). Our cupcake choices...Red Velvet with a Cream Cheese Icing, Chocolate with a Chocolate Icing, and Chocolate Mocha with a Buttercream Icing. So good. The proceeds from the purchase of the cupcakes benefited the “Hope For Henry Foundation." The Foundation provides electronic gifts to children hospitalizd with life-threatening illnesses.